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- Pittsylvania County, VA; Abstract of Wills 1768-1800, Bo o k 975.5665 H 8 74, page 99.
The following Will dated Apr. 30, 1784 - Sweney, Moses, N a mes: Son: James Semore Sweney - my land - only his moth e r is to have her thirds till her decease. Except by he r co nsent the land should be sold. Then she is to have th e thi rd of the price. Wife: Ann Swinney - all my persona l estat e. At decease of wife all moveables to be equall y divide d between my children and Josiah Mapples (I do no t know wh o he is.) Estate not to be appraised. Executor : Ann Swin ey, sole and whole executrix.
The children of Moses Sweney was provided by Jerry D. Nels o n and James L. Gore of Lake Park, GA., in March 1999.
Daughter Ruthea was provided by both Gore, as well as Bill i e Floyd BFLOY@ aol.com on the net. Billie is a descenda n t of Josiah Maples. Josiah Maples was listed in the Mos e s Sweney "Will". Josiah Maples married Ruthea Sweney/Swe en ey, believed in McMinn Co., TN.
Moses Sweney/Sweeney may have another son, Joseph Sweene y , according to the Gore family. Gay McLaughlin also beli ev es so. Gay has an" Application for Pension" for a Josep h Sw inney who served in the Rev. War. Joseph enlisted i n 177 5 or 1776 at Pittsylvania County, VA. Joseph Swinne y was b orn in 1744.
Moses Sweeney and family lived in Pittsylvania County, V A , during this period, and James Semore Swinney vouched f o r Joseph Swinney when Joseph applied for his pension. Ja me s Swinney declared that he is Joseph Swinney's half brot her.
Billie Floyd believes she saw another wife for Moses Sween e y in a DAR record. This is to be researched. Moses Swen e y may have been married twice.
Following is general information, connection unknown?
"Excerpt from data compiled and written by Emma Swinney Wa l ker, Blakesburg, Iowa, 1928-29.
The first Maryland census was published in 1790 by the U . S . Government, and enumerates the names of all members o f fa milies, including Redemptioners, and gives a count o f appro ximately 40,000 Irish.
Many of these Irish crossed the Channel and voyaged from E n glish ports, where they were compelled to take new name s so metimes voluntarily, and sometimes involuntarily, fo r the p urpose of concealment, either by transforming thei r origina l names into English, or by adopting similar ones . Most o f these names were retained on this side the Atla ntic, so a s not to arouse the prejudice of their English n eighbors.
In complying with the statue just quoted, some Irish famil i es accepted the doubtful privilege of translating their n am es into their English equivalents. Also, some Irish imm igr ants, whose family names were not changed in Ireland, t hei r descendants appear in a much disguised form in the Co loni al records.
Through mistakes of clerks of courts, ministers, registrar s , etc., letters have been dropped or inserted, and many n am es have been written down phonetically. In the mutilati on s of time, even these became further changed, so that af te r the lapse of time of a few generations, the Irish them sel ves, deliberately changed their names, as prefixes Mc , Mac , O', etc., were in many families dropped, and so Bry ans we re perhaps once O'Bryan or O'Brien, McLaughlins ar e sometim es Laughlins or Lofflins, and O'Sullivans or Sull ivans spel led backward as Navillus, and McSwiney, MacSween ey, Swine y and Sweeney may or may not have once been the f amily we n ow spell Swinney.
In 1638 to 1675, several Sweeneys, so early records show , h elped blaze the trail to civilization on Long Island . In t he Indian army, we find a Brigadier General Alexand er Joh n Henry Swiney a son of a Major General G. Swiney . (In ano ther list is found a Richard Charles Garton a me mber of th e firm of Garton, Sons and Company.)
Among Revolutionary War records are the names of Lieut. Ja m es Sweeney; later a John Henry Sweeney; a Thomas Sweeney , a nd another James Sweeney of Buck Co., Pennsylvania. So me o f these dates are from 1801 to 1905. We have locate d Swinn eys in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; Dallas, Texas; Stor y Co., I owa; Illinois; Oklahoma; Virginia, and various poi nts in Mi ssouri, yet we cannot trace a relationship with a ll, and so me through correspondence, have proven to be o f entirely di fferent families unless we are of the same fa milies in Irel and.
So if these are of our own flesh and blood, it is not ea s y to decide nor claim, so we are going to leap the spac e o f many miles and eventful years, to places and people o f wh om we know to be important and dear to us, and to who m we k now we are indebted for our existence.
In the early or middle of the eighteenth century three Swi n ney brothers came from County Cork, Ireland, and settle d o n the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania. About 1800, o ne b rother, whose name is forgotten, being dissatisfied he re, r eturned to his native land. The brother, Moses, sett led i n Lowden Co., Virginia, and the other brother, James , Sr. , settled in Monroe County, Virginia. Moses Swinney' s peop le are thought to be scattered through several state s, an d several before mentioned are thought to be descenda nts fr om this branch, and it is a disappointment not be ab le to f ind a connecting link thus far. end of excerpt
re John Swinney (ca 1724) of County Cork, Ireland. Much d a ta in this group sheet is unconfirmed and subject to furt he r research.
re Joseph Swinney (record #302)
A pension application for Joseph Swinney, dated 18 May 182 6 , Monroe Co., VA, has a declaration where James Swinney s ta ted under oath that, "his half brother Joseph Swinney wa s o ne of the company; that he understood that this Compan y mar ched to James Town in Virginia," etc. etc.
re Moses Sweeney (record #303)
Pension application No. Sc31403, dated 23 July 1832, stat e s that Moses Sweeney was drafted from Pittsylvania (VA) a bo ut the 18th of July 1776. He was drafted as a substitut io n for his father, John Sweeny, on a 3 months tour unde r Cap t. John Gregory etal. He was drafted a second time i n the f all of 1781.
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1725 - 1785 (60 years)
